she say?"

"That you are a Spaniard and a robber, because you have a beard."

"Tell her that we are no Spaniards, but that we hate them; and are come
across the great waters to help the Indians to kill them."

The boy translated his speech. The nymph answered by a contemptuous
shake of the head.

"Tell her, that if she will send her tribe to us, we will do them no
harm. We are going over the mountains to fight the Spaniards, and we
want them to show us the way."

The boy had no sooner spoken, than, nimble as a deer, the nymph had
sprung up the rocks, and darted between the palm-stems to her canoe.
Suddenly she caught sight of the English boat, and stopped with a cry of
fear and rage.

"Let her pass!" shouted Amyas, who had followed her close. "Push your
boat off, and let her pass. Boy, tell her to go on; they will not come
near her."

But she hesitated still, and with arrow drawn to the head, faced first
on the boat's crew, and then on Amyas, till the Englishmen had shoved
off full twenty yards.

Then, leaping into her tiny piragua, she darted into the wildest whirl
of the eddies, shooting along with vigorous strokes, while the English
trembled as they saw the frail bark spinning and leaping amid the
muzzles of the alligators, and the huge dog-toothed trout: but with the
swiftness of an arrow she reached the northern bank, drove her canoe
among the bushes, and leaping from it, darted through some narrow
opening in the bush, and vanished like a dream.

"What fair virago have you unearthed?" cried Cary, as they toiled up
again to the landing-place.

"Beshrew me," quoth Jack, "but we are in the very land of the nymphs,
and I shall expect to see Diana herself next, with the moon on her
forehead."

"Take care, then, where you wander hereabouts, Sir John: lest you end as
Actaeon did, by turning into a stag, and being eaten by a jaguar."

"Actaeon was eaten by his own hounds, Mr. Cary, so the parallel don't
hold. But surely she was a very wonder of beauty!"

Why was it that Amyas did not like this harmless talk? There had come
over him the strangest new feeling; as if that fair vision was his
property, and the men had no right to talk about her, no right to have
even seen her. And he spoke quite surlily as he said--

"You may leave the women to themselves, my masters; you'll have to deal
with the men ere long: so get your canoes up on the rock, and keep good
watch."

"Hillo!" shouted one in a few minutes,